Uncharted 2: Forget Me Not
by SnowingLight
Summary: A few months after Nathan and Elena's wedding, all new troubles arise. A new threat takes away more from Nate than he ever could imagine. What will happen when his memories of everyone he knows and loves fade away? Will he remember or will he have to have a completely new start? Takes place after Uncharted: Drake's Ending
1. Chapter 1 - Gloom & Doom

**UNCHARTED 2: Forget Me Not**

**-1-**

**Gloom & Doom**

It was dark, cold and rainy. In a word—miserable. Nate was freezing in the back of this huge, metal truck. He felt his hands shiver here and there, his breaths showing in puffs before his eyes. He was donned in an orange jump suit, typical of prisoners. He had been held hostage by these guys for the past two months...or so they thought. It was all part of the plan. He just had to stay focused on the task at hand. Of course he'd rather be home with his new wife, Elena over this, but she understood that this was something he had to do...his 'duty' to the world. Maybe this would repair the mistakes he had made in his past, make them go away from his mind. Killing was never something he wanted to do—it was something he _had_ to do. Kill one, save millions.

But among all the bad memories he had bothering him at the moment, he had a lot of good ones as well. When he was stuck in shitty situations like this, these memories were the ones that kept him warm. Nate rested his head against the inside of the truck, closing his eyes. He thought of his wedding to Elena and the best night of his life...in more ways than one.

Thinking of his marriage was what kept him going. They had failed at it so many times in the past, but this time they finally got it right. For a while it seemed like a hollow reality, just a dream that would never come to pass. He had abandoned their first wedding a couple years ago, thinking it was the only way he could keep her safe. Nate's job was a dangerous one, I mean, hell, look where he was now. But Elena had told him over and over that she wanted to be with him, no matter the cost. Sure, he pushed her away at first, telling her that he had moved on and didn't love her anymore. If she were away from him, she'd be sad, sure, but it was better her be sad than dead. He wanted to avoid that more than anything. He had already practically lost her when he took down Zoran Lazarevic and he never wanted to go through that again—ever.

It appeared, however, that Elena had her own fears to worry about. Upon being shot more times than she could count, Nate had danced with death quite a bit over the years. A few months prior, he had even died in her arms. All because of some lethally redheaded bitch named Adelle. She had made sure that she tortured Nate and her relationship as much as she could. Adelle had wanted the ring Nate wore around his neck for quite some time. Why? Because that coupled with the other ring she had gotten in her possession, she would become not only as powerful as a god, but invincible as well.

No one could live in a world like that.

Adelle took every measure she could to make sure that Nate didn't get the happy ending he and Elena coveted so badly. So she injected Nate with a deadly poison, hoping it would kill him and his love for Elena in one fell swoop. Before Adelle could see if her victim had taken his fate, Nate was able to stop her once and for all. He killed her and all of her evil deeds with her. Good had won the day.

Or so they thought.

Soon after Nate had taken Adelle down, the poison did what Adelle had intended, it crippled Nate in pain and he slowly began to fade away. In that moment, Nate had confessed his love to Elena and hers to him. Even though it had seemed that evil had lost, to them, it had won. And right then and there, Nathan Drake died in Elena's arms.

Through her grief Elena couldn't accept what had happened, no matter what Sully or anyone else said. She just begged and pleaded for him to come back to her, grasping his limp body in her hands with all her might. Defeated, she had taken the ring Nate had loved for so much of his life, the ring she was able to salvage from Marlowe, and slipped it on his finger. She wouldn't be able to give it to him on their wedding day, so she gave it to him there.

Much to her, Sully and Chloe's surprise, once the ring was on his finger, it began to illuminate, overtaking Nate's body completely. When it had subsided, Nate lay there for a brief moment before letting out a loud gasp and opening his eyes, taking Elena hard in his arms. Somehow, that little ring had revived him.

It was a miracle.

After that, Nate and Elena were finally able to have their wedding day. But the drama didn't stop there. Soon after the wedding it came out that Vergil discovered that Nate was his long lost brother that he thought he had lost many years ago. Not only that, but that Vergil and Chloe were having a baby and were to get married as well. Just another day in the life of Nathan Drake I suppose.

All the memories that filled Nate's mind were interrupted a second later.

"Are you getting lost in Dreamland there, bro?" A voice asked from across from him.

Nate lifted his head to look at the man before him. "I told you not to call me that, Vergil." he warned him.

Vergil was a tall, long haired blonde man who was quite the looker...but was not so much in the intelligence department. His green eyes and full lips were what had won Chloe over in the first place. Just a little while ago, he was a crony for Adelle, doing her bidding like some lapdog. But he soon gave up that life to come over to the side of good. Upon doing so he met Chloe Frazer—his sexy wife and future mother of his child. His life had changed so much just within a few months.

"Lighten up for chrissakes." Vergil sighed, leaning back in his seat. He was decked out in the same attire as Nate, not to mention the both of them were in handcuffs as well.

For a moment Nate considered apologizing to him for his coldness, but he had more important things in mind at the moment. He just kind of looked down to his hands in silence.

It was true, Vergil really was his brother, as much as he didn't want to believe it. Vergil really was a good guy, but there were things about him that just bugged the hell out of Nate. Truthfully, he still had trust issues with him, seeing as how he used to work for the woman that had killed him. Maybe it wasn't so much that he had issues with Vergil, but the whole situation in general. He didn't want to ever think of his childhood again. His mother allegedly killed herself and his father surrendering him to thr state at age five. Vergil on the other hand was told that he was in an terrible car accident with his parents and older brother when he was seven.

Neither of them knew what the true story was, but the fact remained that they really were related. They were really brothers.

Nate let out a sigh. "Look, Vergil...I-" he started, when the truck they were in came to a sudden halt. The guard that was driving quickly put the gear into park and hopped out of the car. A figure was shadowed by the bright headlights shining on him.

The guard reached for his gun and began shouting in Russian. But the guard was soon silenced when a bullet capped him in the side of the head. Dead as a doornail.

Nate shook his head. "Guy sure loves to make an entrance." he said, kicking the back door of the truck open with his foot. Vergil nodded in agreement. Once the door was opened, a familiar face appeared.

"Hello, darlings. Glad to see me?" the man said.

It was none other than Charlie Cutter—a fine ally that Nate had known for quite a while. They evened adventured together, that is until Charlie broke his leg on one of their excursions and had to bow out for a while. He was back now though, back and tougher than ever.

"I thought you were going to do this quietly, Charlie." Nate scolded him as he unlocked the cuffs that Nate and Vergil had around their wrists.

Cutter laughed and shrugged off Nate's words. "I've told you once before, Nate, you have no sense of drama."

Suddenly, what sounded like metal raindrops began to hit the truck.

"Looks like you got your drama there, man." Vergil said, the three of them hopping out of the truck and crouching next to a concrete boarder that was next to them.

"Guns would really be nice about now." Nate said quickly, holding out his hand for a gun from Cutter.

"Calm down." Cutter said, handing both Nate and Vergil a .45. "I'm not a sodding moron."

Nate let out a small laugh. "Yeah, that remains to be seen." he said, sliding a new clip into the gun in his possession.

"So...what?" Vergil asked, looking over his cover to see if he could spot anyone. "We just kill all these guards and then grab the chalice?" he asked. That damn chalice was the whole reason they were there and were taking prisoner in the first place. It was all staged by them to get into this camp so they could get the treasure they wanted.

Cutter nodded. "Here's hoping it's as easy as you make it sound there, lad."

"Okay, you two just shut up and shoot." Nate interjected. The two nodded and almost in unison, the three of them rose from their cover and picked off all the guards that were blocking their path. The rain and fog made it hard to see if they had gotten everyone, but from what they could see, they were clear.

Vergil smirked and twirled the gun around in his hand. "Easy peasy." he said happily, standing up and pressing on. Nate sighed in annoyance and went after him, grabbing his arm.

"You have to be more delicate, Vergil." He told him.

Vergil gave Nate a strange glance. "So you're telling me to be delicate when I'm packing heat?"

Nate rolled his eyes. "Yes, Vergil."

Vergil shook his head and scoffed. "You know what, Nate? I-" Vergil began to yell but Cutter interrupted him, still crouching in his cover.

"Um...guys!" he said in a harsh whisper. He pointed at the two bickering brothers emphatically.

The two looked down to see a red bead on each one of their chests. Vergil looked at Nate with a worried glance.

"Oh shit..." Vergil said through his teeth.

"Goddamn it!" Nate cursed, grabbing Vergil and forcing he and himself back to cover with Cutter.

Vergil took a few deep breaths before speaking. "Okay...now I see what you meant be 'delicate'." he conceded to Nate.

"That was too fucking close." Nate sighed. "When the hell did they get snipers? That wasn't in the original plan."

"Okay, okay calm down. It's only snipers, we can handle a few snipers." Cutter assured them.

"Yeah..." Vergil answered nervously. "It's not like things could get any worse, right?"

As soon as Vergil's jinxing words ended, a fire from an RPG hit close next to them. "Oh _shit_!" Vergil said once more, in a much higher and frightened voice.

Cutter shook his head. "Okay, we can't do this. We're not equipped to handle these damn RPGs." he warned them. "We have to bail out of here, Sully should have the boat at the extraction point by now."

"Wait!" Nate stopped him. "So we just forget about what we came here for and leave empty handed?" he protested.

"Better than leaving without a head. Now come on!" Cutter yelled back at him.

Nate had no choice, he had to leave the chalice behind. "Son of a bitch!" he yelled, running next to Vergil and Cutter. The three of them ran as fast as they could, ducking red beads and RPG shots that were trying to stop them. Unfortunately, he and Vergil were very easy to spot it their bright orange jumpsuits, so they had to hurry as fast as their asses could go.

They soon came to a cliff's edge that led into some black, churning water. "I see the boat!" Cutter yelled through the rain, pointing into the water.

"Are you shitting me!?" Vergil cried out.

"Come on—move!" Cutter screamed, jumping from the edge. It was either jump or be blown to bits at this point.

Nate hustled to the edge. He was all set to jump when he saw Vergil taking a step back. "What the hell are you doing? We need to jump!" he screamed to him.

"I...have a thing with heights okay!" Vergil yelled at him, totally embarrassed that this was coming out at literally the worst possible moment. "Just go! I'll find another way down!"

"There IS no other way down!" Nate roared at him. Nate caught himself, he realized he was bullying his brother again. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but now both of their lives were at stake. "Look..." he said in a calmer voice. "I'll be right next to you, you'll be fine. I promise."

Vergil nodded slowly and crept to the edge. At their feet a sniper fired a shot.

"Vergil, we have to go _now_!" Nate yelled, grabbing Vergil's shoulder. Another shot rang in their ears and Nate was thrown back a bit and hit the ground.

"Nate!" Vergil yelled out, running to him.

Nate let out a small groan and clasped his shoulder. He stood up quickly. "It just grazed me, now go!" A beat later an RPG shot landed ever closer to them. "Enough of this!" Nate growled, grabbing Vergil's arm and jumping off the side of the cliff, into the water.

"Oh, craaaaaaaaaaaap!" Nate shouted out as the two of them made contact with the water.


	2. Chapter 2 - Coffee Break

**-2-**

**Coffee Break**

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Russia, Chloe and Elena were safe and sound in a secluded cabin, where no one could find them until the men got back. Sully was there a lot of the time, but for now he was off doing his own thing, despite the ladies having no idea what his 'own thing' was. Nevertheless they could take care of themselves, even Chloe who was now noticeably pregnant with Vergil, her new husband's baby. The two woman sat comfortably at a table both with two smoking mugs, Chloe drinking camomile tea and Elena black coffee. Although they were concerned about where their husbands were, they tried not to fixate on it, at least for now.

"So how are you feeling today?" Elena asked Chloe, sitting back in her chair.

Chloe scoffed. "Oh, I feel wonderful." she said sarcastically. "I'm just sick of drinking this rubbish. I've wanted to pound a beer for seven months now." she admitted, reluctantly taking a drink of her tea, which she never cared for.

Elena let out a small, sympathetic laugh. "Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie." she said, patting her hand.

Chloe just shook her head. "I'm just kidding. I'm grateful to be having this baby, I can stand to sacrifice my partying ways for a little while." She took another sip of her steaming tea. "But God, I want my body back, that's for damn sure."

"Come on, you still look fantastic." Elena admitted. "And I'm sure Vergil still thinks you have a...what did he call it? A 'smackable ass'?" She grinned after her statement.

"Indeed, and now, with the size I am, I'm sure he thinks it's twice as 'smackable'." Chloe laughed.

Elena laughed with her as well, but it was stopped by a long, loud yawn.

Chloe looked at her with a crooked brow. "And what's gotten you so tired Missy?" she asked. "I thought the coffee was odd since you don't normally drink it, and now you're yawning me, a seven month pregnant woman under the table." she told her.

Elena began to speak but caught herself. "No. No it's stupid." she said with an embarrassed smile.

Chloe sighed. "Oh, come on Elena, we were just talking about my ass you can tell me what's got you so exhausted."

Elena hedged once more before she finally gave it. "It's just...hard for me to sleep away from Nate. Being away from him, it makes me nervous."

Chloe just sat there and looked at her for a moment, she knew Elena had more to say and wanted to hear her out.

"I don't know. I just..." Elena trailed off but then began again. "I feel like something...bad is coming and I don't know what. When he's in bed with me I feel, in control, like I can keep him safe, but when he's away...I feel helpless." she said, peering into her cup, to ashamed to look at Chloe.

Chloe took her hand and placed it on Elena's. "I know, I worry about my husband too." she said. "God, I can't believe Vergil is my husband. Not to mention his most likely clone inside of me." She joked, getting a small laugh out of Elena. "Listen, sunshine, it's only been a handful of months since you watched Nate die in your arms, I couldn't imagine going through something like that. But you both got through it, he's fine." she assured her.

"It's not just that." Elena went on. "When I am in bed with Nate, he...talks a lot in his sleep."

Chloe narrowed her eyes and sat back. "Now, when did this start?" she asked.

"A few days after Nate found out that Vergil and he were brothers. Since then, every night since then—that I was with him at least—he spoke out in his sleep. He sounds so distressed. In the morning, he wakes up and doesn't say a word about it. I'm not even sure he knows he's even dreaming it." Elena told her.

Chloe drew on her words and thought for a moment. "Well...what does he say during the dreams?" she asked.

Just as Elena opened her mouth to answer the question a loud bang came from the wooden door of the cabin and it swung open. There stood Nathan, Cutter and Vergil, all drenched to the bone and looked pretty banged up. Cutter used the door as leverage to stand while Nate was too busy supporting Vergil to worry about himself. Elena and Chloe darted up from the table and ran to them.

"What the hell happened to you three?" Elena asked in horror, leading Nate and Cutter to the sofa, while Chloe guided Vergil.

Nate fought to catch his breath. "We were ambushed by the camp. Someone tipped them off to why we were there and they pulled out all the damn stops to kill us."

"Aye he's right." Cutter jumped in. "Snipers, RPGs, everything they could to blast us into bits. We finally had to jump off the side of the bluff to the getaway boat to even have a shot at surviving. And I can't believe we did."

Chloe's eyes darted to Vergil. "You _jumped_ off the bluff?" she said in horror.

Vergil nodded with a pained face. "Yeah, it was either that or get cut to pieces by snipers."

Chloe looked over his body to make sure he wasn't bleeding or harboring any broken bones. "Well, what about your-"

"Fear of heights? Oh, that came up." Nate said standing up as fast as his injured body could and stormed across the room. Elena noticed he was cradling his arm as he did so. She grabbed a medicine kit from a nearby closet to aid him.

Elena opened up the kit and pulled out some disinfectant and gauze. "Woah, woah, slow down. What happened? What do you mean it came up?" she asked.

Vergil forced himself to sit upward, wincing as he did so. "I had some stage fright when it came time to jump off the side of the cliff."

Nate whipped his head around to Vergil. "Stage fright!? _That's_ what you call it!? We all almost got obliterated because you couldn't grow the hell up, Vergil!"

"Nate, listen-" Vergil began only to be cut off by more of his brother's shouting.

"No, _you_ listen!" Nate yelled back. "Tonight you almost made both our wives widows and left your child without a father! Is that what you want, your child to not have a father like we did!"

Vergil couldn't say anything so he just sat there for a moment. Sure, he had put everything he had ever loved at risk, but it wasn't intentional. As hard as Nate was being on him, he knew that he was right. If he didn't try to work harder and be more careful, it would destroy the lives of his wife and child. He watched Nate just shake his head and storm off into his room, Elena following after him. Before she left the room she stopped and mouthed, "I'm sorry."

Chloe took a wet cloth in her hand and began to wipe off Vergil's cuts and scrapes. "That wasn't exactly called for." she said in an angry voice.

Vergil shook his head and stopped her from helping him further. "No." he said to her. "He's right. He saved my life tonight." he told her.

"Yeah. It's true." Cutter chimed in. "Although he was a rather dick about it."

Vergil's face was filled with ache. He tried to shake it off and focus on his wife. "So...how's Bruce?" he asked, rubbing Chloe's stomach softy.

Chloe sighed and took his face in her hands. "Vergil, darling. I love you. I _married_ you, but I am not, under any circumstances naming my child Bruce Wayne."

Vergil just took her hands from his face and laughed, kissing her hands sweetly.

"Chloe, I've missed you so much, but...would you mind if I went for a walk alone for a few minutes?" Vergil asked her. The last thing he wanted to do was leave but he had a lot to sort out. "I'll only be gone a little bit."

Chloe nodded and kissed him on the forehead. "Sure. Use that time to think of more names." she said with a wink.

Vergil laughed weakly. "Thanks. I love you. Be back soon." he told her.

In the other room, Nate and Elena were alone. Elena closed the door so they could talk more privately. Nate winced sharply at the now even more opened wound on the side of his arm. Elena sighed and sprayed the disinfectant on it and began to wrap the gauze over it. Nate soon felt his boiling blood begin to cool.

Nate sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm an asshole." he said, sitting down on the bed next to him.

"I wouldn't go that far, but you're pretty damn close." Elena told him.

Nate closed his eyes hard and buried his hands in his face. "I know. I know." he said through his hands. "I know this can't be easy for him either. I just...ugh, I don't to see Chloe and her baby go through what I saw you go through with me. I want him safe, that's why I stay close to him, so I can watch over him. I just want him to be careful." he told her.

"Well, maybe instead of yelling at him you can try and teach him more of what you know? Couldn't hurt to try, right?" she said. She watched Nate nod in defeat. "Nate, you're not a bad guy. You don't have a bad bone in your body. The tough love approach was a good thought but it's not working with you. Just, try and be the caring Nate I know you can be with him." she said, stroking his hair.

Nate leaned over and kissed his wife on the lips. Once it ended, he rested his head against hers. "Thank you." he said softly.

Elena kissed Nate on the cheek then patted him on the shoulder. "You're all fixed up, so go in there and make peace with him, all right?" she said.

"Yes ma'am." he said, rising from his bed. "Oh, God, I'm one of those husbands who does everything his wife says like a trained dog." he whined.

Elena nodded, "And don't you forget it, boy." she warned him.

"Woof." Nate said playfully in response. "I love you." he said with a wink.

"Right back at ya." Elena said with a wink herself.

Once Nate made it into the other room, he was surprised when he didn't see Vergil there. "Where did Vergil go?" he asked as he entered the room.

Chloe sat next to Cutter on the sofa reading a thick novel. "He went for a walk. If you have another tongue lashing for him it'll have to wait until he gets back." she snipped at him.

"No. No tongue lashings, I promise. I actually want to apologize." Nate said to her, the sincerity coming through more than Chloe thought it would. She sighed and paused before she answered. "Please, Chloe?" he asked of her.

"He left about a minute ago, you can still catch him if you hurry." she told him reluctantly.

Nate let a small smile come through. "Thank you. I really appreciate it." he said to her, then darting out of the room after his brother.

Cutter just sat there silently for a moment in sheer shock. He shook his head back and forth. "I swear, you all don't even need books and television in this drab cabin, this whole place is like a bloody soap opera."

"Ain't that the truth." Chloe said, trying to focus on her book, but all she could think of was Nate finally accepting Vergil as his brother.

Would that day ever come?


	3. Chapter 3 - Darkness of the Night

**-3-**

**Darkness of the Night**

Nate chased Vergil as closely as he could. He couldn't see very much in front of him, because now it was very late at night and a thick fog was all around. Clouds covered and then revealed the moon back and forth. Nate couldn't help but get an uneasy feeling. The darkness, the crispness in the air, it all felt too much like some horror movie that he had seen in his teen years. There was only one path ahead that Vergil could of went down, but it was through a couple of trees that lead only into more darkness. Nate hedged before he proceeded through the wispy branches.

"Guy's terrified of heights but he heads willfully into the woods from the Blair Witch Project?" Nate said to himself. He never understood Vergil's way of thinking. He himself would jump off of a hundred bluffs before going into a place like this alone.

As he made his way into the woods, Nate looked all around to see if he could find anyone or any..._thing_. He had been shot, stabbed, hell even killed once, but this was one of the scariest things he had ever encountered. Terrorists and killers were one thing, but ghosts and monsters? That was _completely_ different.

Nate looked further ahead to see if he could spot his brother. He caught a glimpse of a figure in the distance. "There he is." he said with annoyance, but before he could take another step further, he heard something leap from branch to branch above him. He quickly looked up and pulled his .45 from the back of his jeans and cocked it to the ready. He couldn't make out what the hell it was but he could swear that it had long black wings, but it looked and sounded like it was as big as he was.

That couldn't be possible could it?

From up ahead, Nate heard some rustling from a bush and he pointed his gun in front of him. A few freaked out moments later, Vergil came from behind the bush.

Nate sighed and rolled his eyes, shifting his gun back to his jeans. "Jesus, Vergil what the hell are you doing out here? In a place like this nonetheless."

Vergil stepped forward, zipping up his pants as he did so. "Well, I came out here to take a breather and during all that breathing I needed to take a leak." He answered, looking to see that Nate had had a gun out. "What's with the gun? Am I that annoying that you want to shoot me now?"

Nate stopped for a moment and closed his eyes. He knew better than anyone that he deserved that. "No. No, Vergil, I didn't come to shoot you. Just the opposite actually. I wanted to apologize for being such an ass to you." he explained. "The gun was because I thought I heard something out here."

Vergil turned to him with a jerky grin on his face. "Oh, so you were scared am I right?" he asked.

"Not in so many words." Nate snapped back.

Vergil walked up to him, waving his hands about. "No, no! _Exactly_ that many words, Nathan."

"Okay, Vergil, stop it." Nate said, his anger building.

Vergil didn't relent, he just pressed on. "Stop it? You want me to stop? Why? You made me feel like shit over a fear of heights, I can't make fun of you for being afraid of the dark!?" he yelled at Nate, getting closer to his face, causing him to walk backwards into a tree.

Nate just stood there silently for a moment, his breath quickening, this time, not of anger, but almost as of fear.

Vergil backed off a little bit. Maybe he had gone too far in his assertiveness. He didn't want to hurt Nate or even scare him, he just wanted to be respected. "What's the matter?" he asked in a now kind voice.

Nate's eyes began to close tighter and tighter. "Do you hear that?" he said in a pained voice, bringing his hands to his head, covering his ears.

Vergil was confused, her Nate was right in front of him, hearing something that was so deafening that it was causing him extreme pain. But he himself heard nothing. He looked around to see if anything was nearby. Thinking quickly, he grabbed Nate's gun and stood in front of him, ready to shoot anything that came near his brother.

Meanwhile, Nate behind him was completely pinned to the floor, the sound crippling his body. "It's so...loud..." he groaned through gritted teeth.

Vergil felt his breath get shaky, he wasn't sure what to do. "What is it!? What to do you hear!?" he shouted to him.

Nate's only reply was a loud scream. Hearing his brother struggle like this was more than Vergil could stand, so he screamed along with him, firing every shot in the gun there was. He shot anywhere he thought something could be hiding, through the bushed, up in the trees. Vergil continued firing a few times even after the clip was emptied. One of the shots must have made contact because Nate soon stopped screaming and his body released.

Vergil through the empty .45 to the side and ran to his brother. "Nate, bro, are you okay?" he asked, helping him sit up. "What the hell was that?" he looked around to confirm whatever it was was gone.

Nate held his head in his hands for a few moments as he gathered himself. He could still feel ringing in his head. "I don't know..." he said in confusion. "How the hell could you stand that?" he asked him, in awe that that horrible shrieking didn't make Vergil collapse as well.

Vergil shook his head. "Stand what? I couldn't even hear anything." he admitted.

"Something is out there. I noticed something odd when I first came here. I couldn't see what it was, but something definitely isn't right." Nate explained, using the tree next to him to try and stand.

"Easy, man." Vergil warned him. "Let's get you back to the wives, maybe they can-" Vergil began.

"No!" Nate shouted, turning his head to Vergil. "We don't breathe a word of this to them, you got me?"

Vergil gasped in protest. "Nate, you can't be serious! Something out there was able to bring you to your knees without touching you or being seen. This is a big deal and we need to try and figure out what we're up against." he said.

"Vergil," Nate said gently, placing his hand on his shoulder. "our wives have been through so much this past year. I don't want Elena to worry and I don't want anything to hinder the health of Chloe or your child, okay? Why worry them when we don't know anything yet? I'll call Sully and he can help us with this."

Vergil looked down to think for a moment. He wasn't sure which was the right thing to do. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, looking him over.

Nate nodded weakly back at him. He wasn't about to tell him no, so he figured he would just lie. Sure, the noise from hell was gone, but it left him with a splitting headache. He wanted to think this was just a mishap, but it's never that simple. "Let's just get back home, all right? I'm fine."

Vergil put his arm around Nate to help him walk. He could tell that this fight—if you could even call it that—had tired him out. "Lean on me, bro." he said. The two of them took a few steps before Nate cried out, grabbing his head. "What!? Do you hear that noise again!?" he asked in panic.

Nate shook his head quickly. "N-no." he answered. This time it was the truth. The sound was nowhere to be heard, he just felt the same sensation in his brain that he did when the sound _was_ shrieking. "I really am okay, Vergil. I swear. I just need to get home. Promise me you'll keep your mouth quiet about this." he said in an almost pleading voice. "Please."

Vergil looked at his brother with concerned eyes. But when he saw how determined Nate was with this, he couldn't refuse. He nodded hesitantly a few times before he said. "You got it, man."

Nate smiled back at him in gratitude. "I really am sorry about before." he told him.

Vergil just smiled weakly and shrugged it off. "Hey, no worries, I wasn't a role model brother myself. You had every reason to be freaked by this damn forest."

Nate fought to walk as best as he could to get the two of them out of there as fast as possible. "Premonition can be a bitch." he joked.

The two walked out of the forest, being as careful as they could of their surroundings. Every howl in the night, every twig snap, sent the both of them into uneasiness. Surely this place couldn't be haunted or anything like that. Aside from all the questions the two of them had about _what_ had caused all of this trouble, Vergil couldn't help but think with every step of the way home-

_Why didn't the noise affect me?_

Once the two brothers made it out of the forest, they were in the clear. But what they didn't realize was there was in fact a figure high in the treetops. He remained hidden by the darkness and the covering of the moon by the grey clouds. Once the moon beams were able to shed light on the darkness, the silhouette of a man with long wings was perched on a branch. Dark glasses covered the eyes on his face, all else was hidden by the night.

The figure laughed in it's dark and foreboding voice, the voice of a man still in his youth. "And so it begins..." he hissed to himself before flying off of the branch and soaring into the night.


	4. Chapter 4 - Let it Go

**-4-**

**Let it Go**

When Nate and Vergil made it to their home's doorway, Nate forced him self to stand on his own, trying to compose himself. Chloe and Elena weren't stupid, and he and Vergil have both tried (unsuccessfully) to hide things from the women they love to protect them. So much had happened to all of them this past year, and he didn't want to add to it. In his mind, he hoped like hell all of this was just a weird scenario that played out. Although, deep down he knew that wasn't true—it never was. He just wanted everyone to be at peace, if not forever than just for this night. It had been three months since he and Vergil had seen their wives, aside from when he broke out in his little hissy fit. Tonight should be all about the wives.

Nate sighed and leaned against the door frame and closed his eyes. His head was still throbbing. Vergil walked a step closer to him.

"Hey..." he began slowly. "Are you sure you're-"

"Vergil," Nate cut him off with a strained voice. "I'm all right. Really." he lied.

Vergil looked at him for a few moments. He knew that Nate was being anything but truthful. Although he hadn't know him very long time, and an even shorter time as his brother, he didn't like seeing him in pain. He had never really seen him this ailed before. Even when he was dying he looked more...sad, and trying his hardest to be strong for Elena.

Seeing him like this was...scary.

Nate took a few deep breaths and looked to his ring. "It'll all be all right." he said softly to himself. A moment later he finally opened the door and walked inside, Vergil being cautious behind him. As the door closed behind him, Cutter ran up to the two of them, shushing them incessantly.

Nate narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is the matter with you?" he asked lowering his register for...whatever the reason was.

Cutter just pointed emphatically at the couch, on it was Chloe fast asleep. Nate's eyes just widened and he nodded in response, with not even a peep. The three of them knew better than to wake a pregnant woman, especially when she was in her third trimester...and ESPECIALLY when that third trimester pregnant woman was Chloe Frazer. If they woke her now, all of them would be on the ground in the fetal position holding their 'special places'.

Nate walked over to the kitchen counter, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and a few aspirin from the cabinets. He took a glass and filled it about halfway he took the pills and downed the whiskey in one go.

Maybe this would ease his headache. It was worth a try.

Vergil walked across the room, pulling a quilt from a chair and gently draped it over her rising and falling body. He sat next to her and ran his fingers through her dark hair. Cutter plopped down beside him and let out a hard sigh.

"Is he making a cocktail to fix the stick in his ass?" he asked Vergil jokingly. He assumed he and Vergil were still at odds since the two of them weren't saying much. Maybe it was because of Chloe, but he didn't believe that to be the case.

Vergil let out a weak and quiet chuckle. "Yeah, maybe he is. But just...forget about him for a while. Let him be, all right?" he asked.

"Aye, aye." Cutter said in confusion, sitting back.

Nate poured himself one more drink and downed it. "Where's Elena?" he asked, his glass clanking against the table.

"Shhh!" Vergil and Cutter said in a loud whisper in unison. Cutter pointed his finger to he and Elena's room. "She went in there about an hour ago." Cutter said in the softest voice he could.

Nate looked at the whiskey bottle and decided against a third. "Jesus, living with you guys I'm surprised I'm not in AA by now." he sighed, heading into his room.

Cutter waited until he heard the door to Nate's room close before he asked Vergil, "Okay, time to tell me what the hell is going on. All of this far exceeds sibling rivalry." he told him.

Vergil considered telling Cutter right then and there, after all Nate didn't make him promise that he wouldn't tell _him_, just the girls. But he looked down at his sleeping wife, and decided that he should keep his mouth shut. Chloe could hear or something.

Cutter picked up the book Chloe had been reading and began to leaf through it. "Listen, I know something has got to be going on. You've barely said a word, which is...well so very unlike you, and Drake doesn't usually drink that hard. So we can sit here and have some unintelligent chat about the weather or some bollocks like that, or you can just skip all that and tell me now." Once his words ended, he looked over at Vergil with a "Well?"

Vergil just let out a hard, shaken sigh and put a hand over his face. "Something did happen." he admitted. He easily stood from the couch and walked across the room. He walked over to the kitchen and poured himself a stiff drink as well.

Cutter threw the book aside and followed him, talking very quietly. "And that something would be?" he asked.

Vergil just held the full glass and looked at it. "We ran into some..._thing_ in the woods tonight."

"What thing?" Cutter asked him.

Vergil let out a scoff. "That's the question we're all asking." he answered. Vergil took a very small sip of the alcohol and grimaced at the taste. "That _thing_...did something to Nate, and I don't know what the hell it is."

Cutter was silent for a moment before he spoke. "Did something? What did he do?" he asked, wanting answers to this interesting story.

"That's just it, I don't know what he did. Nathan and I were just standing there fighting and all of a sudden he starts screaming, complaining about some loud noise that was causing him pain." Vergil said.

Cutter tried to focus and believe what Vergil was saying. It sounded more like something out of a comic book or something than something that could happen in reality. But why would Vergil lie? There was no reason for him to, in fact it was often said that he could be a little _too_ honest.

"Okay..." Cutter answered slowly. "And the sound did the same thing to you?" he asked.

"That's the other thing." Vergil replied. "I never even heard it." He sighed and left the full glass on the table, he could never handle the hard stuff. "And to sum it all up, I'm fairly certain that what did that to him wasn't human...well, not entirely at least."

Cutter grabbed the glass of whiskey and pounded it hard. So what, there was a monster or something out there taking people down like Drake? This was all kinds of bad. "Wait, wait, wait, so you're saying this _creature_ ambushed you and made a sound so loud that it made Drake even more bloody crabby, and you never heard or saw anything?" he asked, trying desperately to wrap his head around this whole mess.

Vergil nodded. "Yes, that's what I'm saying. Clearly Nate still is having adverse affects from what happened tonight. But he's hell bent on keeping this hush hush until we know what the hell this thing is."

Pouring another shot Cutter just sat there and starred off into space. "Well, son of a bitch." he cursed. He hadn't been on a trek since all the hell went down with Marlowe, and she was just an old hag, no powers or the like. But now something was out there that wasn't human? How in the hell are you supposed to combat something like that!?

XXX

"_I just want to go to bed and sleep next to my wife." _Nate thought to himself as he slowly walked into the room, careful to not wake Elena if she was already asleep. _"Jesus, my head is splitting." _

Nate walked to the other side of the room to grab a white shirt and black pants, he then headed into the bathroom to change and wash up. Once he had his clothes on he leaned over the sink and ran the water. He splashed a few cook handfuls of water on his face.

Then it hit him.

Pain like a thousand bricks being thrown on his head. He threw his hands to his temples and cried out. Thinking quickly, he turned the water onto full blast so Elena wouldn't hear his cries. He fell hard to his knees. He heard the shriek echoing in his mind so loudly. In his head, he saw a faint silhouette of a man with a long black coat, and equally long and black bat wings. Dark sunglasses covered any sign of his eyes, his hair was wispy in the front and came to a jagged point at the top of his head. Any clues to who he was weren't able to be seen clearly.

_Let go, Nathan..._

The figure said so loudly in Nate's head that it was as if it was right in front of him.

As soon as the ghostly words ended, so did the pain. Nate opened his eyes that, unbeknownst to him, flickered a deep red for a moment before returning to normal. Nate panted a few times before he was able to get back on his feet again. He stopped the water from running and just looked at himself in the mirror. He couldn't tell what, but something about him looked different. It was like something inside him had shifted a little bit...

But what?

"What's happening to me?" he said to himself. He felt a twinge of fear inside. Whatever was happening wasn't good wasn't good at all.

Nate held his hand up and saw he was shaking. "Be nothing. Please, be nothing." he said.

He then opened the door and began to crawl into bed, it was so dark in there it was hard to see anything. As he got under the covers, the lights flickered on, and there in front of him, in the sexiest black lingerie he had ever seen was Elena. Thigh-highs and all.

"Welcome home, baby." she said smiling wide at him.

Nate's mouth went agape. "Holy shit."

Elena twirled a white feather in her hands with a sultry look on her face. "Hey there, prisoner. I hear you've been bad and need a punishing." she said crawling onto the bed with him. She leaned over him and ran the feather over his face and up his arm. She bit her lip with a wide grin. "Ooh, you're so scared I've got you shaking, huh?"

Nate felt a catch in his throat. "Ye-yeah. You could say that."

"Well, your whole body will be shaking here in a few minutes." she said, tracing the feather along his body lower and lower...

Nate grabbed her hand to stop her. "Elena, stop." he said. As much as he wanted her to keep going, he just couldn't. He feared he could have another freak out.

Elena raised a brow. "Fine then." She said, throwing the feather aside. She leaned against him and began to kiss his neck. His weakness.

Nate moaned in delight as she kissed him. He tried so hard to resist. "U-um, Elena...?" he said fighting so hard. He thought of any stupid excuse he could. "The, uh—others are, r...right outside, we don't want to disturb them." he said his voice rising with each kiss he felt. He raised his arm and pounded it hard against the wall, wanting to resist her.

But it's damn near impossible to resist something you've been craving.

Nate gave in and grabbed his wife and threw her on the bed. It had been three months since he had seen her, let alone made love to her, and even more they were still newly weds. The pain he felt had subsided so he thought maybe he was out of the woods. And with as hot as Elena looked he would take his chances. If these pains didn't kill him, him trying to resist her would.


	5. Chapter 5 - Seeing Red

**-5-**

**Seeing Red**

Nate's eyes flickered as he slept. Something in his dream world was captivating him—tormenting him. He shifted back and forth in his sheets. His body was now drenched in his own sweat. Crying out, his voice yelled, "No..." over and over. Soon, his shifting became that of thrashing. Elena awoke to all of this in a panic. She had seen him have things that were that of night terrors for the past while, but nothing like this. This was the worst it had ever been. She leaned over to him and gently grabbed his face.

"Nate, Nate, wake up. You're just having a nightmare." she said in as calm a voice as she could muster. When she got no response from him, she began to shake him. "Nate, wake up!" she called out.

Nate's eyes flew open and he grabbed Elena's wrist.

Hard.

Elena winced and looked in his eyes. She felt her body freeze when she saw them glowing a bright red color. "You-you're hurting me, Nate." she said in a shaky voice.

A few moments later, she felt his grip release and his eyes reverted back to normal. Once he let go she clasped her wrist and panted breathlessly for a few moments. Nate sat there in horror, looking at her like she was going to break in the next few seconds.

Elena steadied herself and looked to him with concerned eyes. "What the hell was that?" she asked with a hint of fear. She had seen her husband mad before, close to a rage in fact, but not once had he'd ever raised a hand against her or anyone else he cared about. Something was going on.

A few moments of heavy silence filled the room before Nate could answer Elena's question. His eyes just were as wide as could be and he shook his head. "I don't know..." he said in a horrified voice. He was disgusted with himself. He knew something had been going on with him since he and Vergil encountered that...thing in the forest. He wanted to keep it a secret because he didn't want anyone to get hurt, and now Elena had been.

Nate looked at Elena and the look on her face was enough to cut him deep. She looked at him with a scared look in her eyes. Nate had seen her look that way at Adelle or Lazaravic, but him? This couldn't be real.

Nate's breaths came in hard shakes. "Elena...I'm so sorry. Forgive me." he said to her.

Much to his surprise, Elena leaned over and kissed him on the lips. "Of course I forgive you. I've known you long enough to know that that wasn't you." she assured him.

Nate blinked a few times. "Then who was it?" he asked softly. Suddenly, his head began to throb again. He let out a small cry. Elena grabbed onto his arm.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her voice hastening.

Nate shook the pain away and backed away from her. "Nothing, I'm fine." he lied. He didn't want her to touch him. He didn't want to inadvertently hurt her again.

"Nate, let me help you!" she cried out to him.

Nate shook his head, trying to shake the pain away. "No! Just get away from me!" he shouted loudly.

Elena just looked at him in concern. "Nate, what the hell is going on? Can't you tell me?" she asked.

The next sound heard was the door to their room opening. "He can't...but I can." Vergil said, entering the room. Nate looked over to him, panting softly. The look on Vergil's face was conflicted. On one side, he wanted to keep his word to his brother, then, on the other he wanted to bring this situation to light so that it can begin to be remedied.

XXX

After a discussion that seemed to take hours finally ended, everyone sat silently at the table for a moment. Nate sat on the end side of the table with his hand over his mouth, staring holes into the table. This was so much for everyone to take in. This was the last thing he wanted to happen, to scare everyone with something that may not even be real.

"So..." Chloe began, "there's some weird...bat man out there somewhere hunting victims?" she asked, thinking this was one of Vergil's comic reading tangents going way too far.

Cutter remained silent for a moment. Vergil had told him everything a little while before. "I know it sounds like a load of bollocks but its the truth, love." he told her.

Elena slammed her hands on the table. "A...Bat man?" she said in disbelief. "I thought we were in Russia all this time, when really, we were in Gotham City." After she calmed down, she sighed and looked to Nate. "Why, Nate? Why didn't you tell me?"

A saddened looked hit Nate's face, his gaze still downward. "Because I wanted to keep lying to myself." he said.

Elena's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

Nate plopped his elbows on the table and put his hands in his hair. "I wanted to believe we were safe here, that all of these other treasure hunts we were going on weren't too dangerous. Not like Adelle. I want to keep all of you safe but..." Nate grabbed his hair hard. "Everything I touch turns to shit!" he yelled.

His outburst got him pitied looks from the others. They didn't know what to say. They all knew that he strove to keep all of them safe. But being in the line of work he was in, that was easier said than done. But it wasn't like he dragged them there, they were there because they _chose_ to be.

Nate lowered his hands and let out a sigh. "Can we...just talk about something else?" he asked. He searched his mind for anything else. "Chloe, I know you were doing some research earlier before I went after Vergil. Did you find anything out about the chalice?"

Chloe's eyes got wider and she reached for her laptop from her bag. She opened it and pulled up a picture of the chalice on the screen. "All this commotion, I almost forgot." she said, turning the computer toward him. "Now don't flip out, but the chalice was never at the camp you three went to." she said.

Nate, Cutter and Vergil's heads all shot up in unison. "What the hell are you talking about?" Cutter asked, his voice climbing.

Vergil just looked stunned. "You mean that Nate and me spent three months in that camp for nothing?"

Chloe shook her head. "No, not for nothing. I meant to say that it isn't there_ anymore_." she corrected. "See, once you three were spotted there and shook everything up, the soldiers decided to change the location of the chalice to keep it hidden in case you tried again."

"Well, where did they move it to?" Cutter asked.

Chloe held up a tape recorder. "I was able to tap into the feed of some of the guards on their walkie-talkies. Listen." she said, pressing the play button. All of the speaking was in Russian.

_("Those suspicious men are trying to recover the chalice! Send out a full alert all over the camp grounds! Snipers and RPGs get in position! Move the chalice to Saratov!")_

Chloe clicked the tape to stop it. "That's all I was able to retrieve, but I don't speak Russian so I don't know it that was any use to you." she said.

Nate was the only one among them that knew Russian and he heard clear as a bell that the chalice was in Saratov. But he had put all of them through enough already and he knew that they wouldn't let him go to retrieve the chalice because of everything that had happened. He would only become a burden on all of them.

"Nate?" Elena asked him, shaking him from his thoughts. "You know Russian, what did it say?" she asked.

Nate just swallowed hard before he answered. "They didn't say, it was just a lot of nonsense about getting us off the camp grounds." he lied.

Chloe sighed hard and leaned back in her chair. "Damn, guess this means we're back to square one."

"Yeah." Nate said in defeat. "I'm sorry guys." he said, rising from the table. "I need some air."

"Nate-" Elena began.

"Elena." he cut her off. "I'll be all right. I just want to walk around and clear my head. I'll be fine." he told her. And just like that he was gone.

None of his friends felt right about him being alone in his situation. But they knew they couldn't go after him.

Chloe shook her head. "What to do now?" she asked.

Elena grabbed her cellphone from the table. "This is what we do." She answered, dialing a number. After a moment, her caller picked up. "Hey, it's Elena. We really need you."

XXX

Outside, Nate was still standing outside the door. He closed his eyes and looked sad for a moment. His mind was made up, he was going to Saratov alone. Whatever this thing was coming after him, it was clear that it wanted him. It was calling to him, no one else. That was clear when he was the only one afflicted by that noise. He just hoped he could stop it...whatever it was.

Nate took one more look at his friends and his wife through the window. "I'm sorry you guys." he said sadly. Then he took off to find this thing and put an end to this nightmare.


	6. Chapter 6 - A Bat in the Forest

**-6-**

**A Bat in the Forest**

Nate drove his jeep through the dampened rain forest in front of him. He wanted to keep away from main roads and the risk of being spotted. He was never the best driver to begin with, and now with so much on his mind and on this kind of terrain nonetheless he wouldn't be surprised if he was soon wrapped around one of these many trees. He had lied to his wife and friends and now he was throwing himself into God knows what. Sure, going into this alone when he appeared to be the only one vulnerable to whatever this was seemed like a foolish move, but he wasn't going to put his wife and his brother's wife and unborn child at risk for anything. At most, he thought, he could distract this thing away from them for a while.

Saratov wasn't that far away from where he was now but with the anger he felt, it may as well have been a million miles away. Nate wanted answers and he wanted them now. Whatever this bastard had done to him had already driven him to hurt Elena, and that was going too damn far. He wasn't even sure what had happened with all of that, all he remembered was waking up and the next thing he knew he was looking at Elena with pain and fear in her eyes. It was as if he had lost all control of himself for a moment. He never even remembered grabbing her in the first place.

Nate peered over to the passenger's seat to the shotgun he had there. Whatever this thing was trying to ruin him and his family was about to get a shotgun facelift. Figured, maybe if he killed this thing, he would kill whatever was going on with himself with it.

Clearly in his mind he saw himself grab Elena as hard as he could, inside screaming for himself to stop but he couldn't. As if some outside force had possessed him for a moment. Elena's whimpered words rang in his head.

"_Nate...you're hurting me."_

Nate's thoughts were shook from him when he saw a large broken tree stump in his path. He had just enough time to swerve away from it and slam on the breaks. The jeep screeched to a halt and Nate panted to catch his breath. In all the commotion, the shotgun had fallen to the floor of the car. As he leaned over to retrieve it, he found a photo there. It was a picture from he and Elena's wedding day. It was a shot of the two of them holding cake in each other's faces. Nate was grinning through the thick layers of icing smeared on his mouth and Elena was smiling happily, dodging the piece he was trying to shove in her face.

How did things go from that to the way things were now?

Thinking of all of this made Nate angry. He gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles and let our a roar. Unleashing fury like that seemed to stir something inside of him because he began to feel that horrible pain in his head again. Just like it had last night, he heard a faint, whispering voice calling out to him.

"_Let go Nathan..."_

'Let go'? Of what?

Nate's eyes shut hard and his teeth were grimaced. "Why?" he choked out through his pain. "Why is this...happening?"

Just then, a flash went by his rear view mirror. He shot his eyes to it and then to behind him. When he saw nothing, this made him nervous. He picked up the shotgun from the passenger's seat. The photo of he and Elena he placed in the overhead mirror.

Nate exited the car and held his shotgun to the ready. He felt sweat bead on his forehead. He couldn't remember the last time an enemy made him feel this afraid. Like a child afraid of some imaginary monster in their closet.

He hoped this thing was just as imaginary.

From behind him, Nate heard a twig snap. In one swift motion he spun around and aimed it forward. Once again, he saw nothing. It was now that he realized that his hands were beginning to shake. The pain in his head was building but he couldn't focus on that right now.

"Stop toying with me!" he screamed out into the forest.

"Very well then." A faint voice answered from close in front of him.

Nate braced himself, for what he saw next was nothing like he had ever seen before. It was a man dressed in a long black leather overcoat, with long black pants and huge black leather boots. He had a pale face from what he could see, but most of his face was covered with the dark sunglasses he was wearing. His hair was a deep brown and spiked to a point. He appeared to be normal except for the real bat wings jutting from his back. This...thing had appeared before him in a puff of black smoke.

Nate paused for a moment, blinking his eyes a few times to make sure this wasn't some mirage. He held his gun as steady as he could but his hands were still trembling. "What the hell are you?"

The man just let out a brief laugh. From this, Nate could see he had white perfect teeth, except for two fangs like some sort of vampire. "I'm Batman." he said in a gruff, Batman-esque voice, spreading his wings apart.

Was this guy serious?

"I meant your name, wise-ass." Nate snapped in response.

"Oh, we'll have plenty of time for that, don't worry." The man answered in his thick Russian accent. "You are going to be my pawn after all." he snickered.

Nate felt himself gasp a little inside. "Pawn?" Was all he could muster in response.

The man gave Nate a condescending look. "Come now, Nathan. You know all too well what I mean. Surely you remembered when you nearly broke your wife's wrist this morning."

Nate's eyes grew wide. "It was you!" he shouted. "Tell me what you did to me!" he demanded, aiming his gun straighter at him.

The man just let out a tsk tsk sound. "Temper, temper. I'd be more than happy to oblige you in the answers you seek but I don't take well to threats or demands." he said in a lax tone. "I'd suggest you calm down."

But Nate couldn't hold his anger inside. "Screw you!" he screamed, firing one of the rounds of the shotgun at him. The man just spun around in such grace that it almost looked like a dance move.

The man just let out a disappointed sigh. "I tried to be courteous and warn you, but now you've gone and made this messy. Pity." he said. The man simply stood up straight and got into a fighting like stance. He removed the dark glasses from his face. Nate's eyes narrowed when he saw the man's eyes. His iris' were rimmed in black but the rest were completely white, save for the pupil.

"Given by your silence I'm guessing you didn't know that I was blind did you?" he asked in a sarcastic voice.

Blind? How could that be possible? Nate fired a shot right at him and he dodged it with unbelievable precision. How could he do something like that when he couldn't see where or when the shot was fired?

The man just let out an evil laugh. "I would pay to see the look on your face right now, but shame I can't." Suddenly the man's playful sounding voice turned serious. "I'd love to see the person I'm going to control."

Nate felt the rage surge inside of him. He prepared to fire the gun once more, but the man moved so quickly that he appeared to of teleported in front of him, knocking the shotgun from Nate's hands.

"Let's settle this like men, shall we?" he said, insisting on hand to hand combat.

Nate knew the basics of street fighting but this man seemed to know Judo. He was no match for his speed and power of fist fighting. Even though this guy was blind, he seemed to sense Nate's blows before he even threw them.

The fight seemed over before it even began. The man grabbed Nate by the throat and forced him to the ground to subdue him. Nate was still weak from his encounter with him earlier and without a weapon on hand there wasn't too much he could do to fight back. The man wasn't huge in figure, but the power he had was that of a giant.

"You wanted to know my name?" The man hissed down at Nate. "It's Noctern." he said simply and made a growling face and from it came that same horrible noise from last time. Nate began to scream loudly. "What's the matter, Nathan!?" Noctern screamed over his own noise. "Have a little headache!?" He laughed at the victim right in front of him. "Just give into the darkness, Nathan! And all this will end!"

Noctern watched down at Nate's anguish and saw that his eyes were flickering to a crimson color. His plan was going all too perfectly. _Just a few more seconds._ He thought to himself as he saw his pawn submitting.

A split second later, a shot was fired into Noctern's side. He let out a loud screeching noise and flinched. He flinch made him throw Nate across the forest. The sheer force of the throw made Nate crash hard into a tree. His head cracked hard against the bark that it even began to crack.

Noctern grasped his side where he was shot and began to flap his wings. He took flight to the skies and in a puff of black smoke he was gone.

Nate looked to see who was holding the smoking gun in the distance. His vision was heavily blurred from hitting his head and now blood was beginning to sting his eyes.

The person made there way over to him. Nate could now tell just by the bright salmon color of the man's shirt who it was. "S...Su-" he tried to choke out.

"Don't talk kid. Just stay awake as long as you can." he told Nate.

Nate was only able to croak out one word before everything around him turned to darkness.

"Su...lly..."


	7. Chapter 7 - As Fast As He Can

**-7-**

**As Fast as He Can**

Sully drove his jeep as fast as he could. He looked back in the back seat to see Nate bleeding badly from the head and just staring blindly into the sky. His jacket he had wrapped around Nate's head was getting soaked heavily with blood. It took all of his sanity to not panic, he didn't know how much time he had before Nate could possibly...

While keeping a firm grip on the wheel with one hand, Sully reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a cellphone and quickly dialed a number. The other line only rang about twice before a man answered the phone, but with all the urgency felt, it might as well of rang a hundred times.

The man on the other line couldn't get a 'hello' out before Sully began speaking. "Evans!" he cried out in relief that he was able to get a hold of him.

"Victor?" Evans answered, puzzled by the haste in Sully's voice. "Are you okay?"

Sully looked back once more at Nate before he answered. "I am, but Nate isn't." he said grimly, turning his gaze back at the road. "He was in some sort of accident and now he's bleeding heavily from the head." he informed him, trying not to elaborate too much on the subject. If he were to tell him some freaky bat creature was he cause of this, before he knew it it could be all over the news.

"How bad is it?" Evans asked him.

Sully paused for a moment and shook his head. "It's really bad, Pierce." he said, using the man's first name now.

Pierce Evans was more than just a friend to him and Nate. He was a trained and highly skilled doctor that took care of them under the table. Doing what he and Nate did, they had to lie, cheat and steal, and if they were to get hurt in the process, they couldn't just be rushed into a hospital for their enemy of the day to come and kill them. Before Pierce, they had to take care of all the wounds they'd taken in themselves—and it wasn't pretty. At this point, Sully had known Pierce for about fifteen years, and in all that time he had healed a lot of wounds and managed to keep it hush hush. Removing bullets from each other or sewing up a wound was child's play to Nate and Sully now, but something like this? He didn't want to take any unnecessary chances.

"Can you meet me at the cabin as soon as you can?" Sully asked him.

"Of course." Evans answered right away. "On my way."

"Thanks." Sully said, flipping his phone closed and then open again to make another call. After a couple rings the other party picked up. He was thrown by who answered the phone.

"Elena?" Sully said with surprise. "U-uh can I speak to Chloe?" he asked.

"Um...sure." She said with caution. "Were you able to find Nate?"

Sully feared she would ask him such a question. He took a hard gulp before he spoke again. "No." he lied. "Now, I really need to speak to Chloe okay, sweetheart." he said in as kind a voice as he could at the moment.

"Sure." she answered. Sully could hear the disappointment in her voice. But if she were so upset over the fact that he couldn't find Nate, what would she do if she knew he was bleeding to death in the back of his jeep?

A few seconds passed before Chloe got on the line. "Victor, you rang?"

"Chloe," Sully spoke in a stern voice. "you have to do me a favor."

"Anything, go ahead." she said, her voice growing worried from the tone of Sully's.

"I found Nate, but he's hurt bad. I already called Pierce to come to the cabin and take care of him as soon as I get him there, but I don't want Elena seeing Pierce or Nate. Not until I'm sure if he's going to be okay or not." he told her.

Sully heard a slight scoff come from the other side. "What do you mean_ if_?" she asked in horror.

"Chloe, I swear I will tell you everything that happened as soon as I get there, okay?" he assured her. He felt a twinge of guilt overcome him. "I'm sorry to put this on you."

"No, no." She corrected him. "I'll get on it. Just..." she trailed off, fighting the catch in her voice. "Just...take care of him, all right?"

"Yeah..." he said, feeling that he was failing at that task already. And with that, he flipped his phone closed.

From the back seat he heard Nate let out a pained noise and squirm a bit. Upon hearing this, he slammed on the gas even harder. It was clear this was his day to play guardian angel, and he wasn't going to give up on him-

for anything.

In the back seat, Nate continued to have to blank eyes peering into the sky. For a brief moment, unbeknownst to Sully, his eyes did a quick flicker to red and back.

Time was running out—and running out fast.

XXX

Meanwhile, Noctern was fluttering through the sky. His usual precision was now all over the place from the hole in his side. Ahead was the cave that he had used as a base. It was the perfect place to hide—dark, secluded, which seemed enough to keep out any unwanted guests. Deeper within the cave was where he did all his work, his 'throne room' if you will. Not much in means of decoration was on the walls, what with him being blind, a Picasso wouldn't do him very much good. Voice recognition computers were on either wall and a small weapon arsenal lined the walls.

Noctern staggered a bit to one of the weapon-lined walls. Without having to feel around for the weapon he needed, he grabbed a dagger off a rack, like he could see perfectly in his mind where it was.

Then, in one swift motion he jabbed the dagger in his side, digging for the bullet that had be lodged there. He let out a loud wail from the sensation, his body surprisingly still and cooperative.

"Fucking idiots!" he screamed as he ripped the bullet from his body. Once the pain subsided, so did his fury. From his pocket, he pulled a syringe. Inside was a bright green substance. Noctern immediately jabbed it into his neck and injected the fluid. As he felt the cooling sensation overtake his body, his wound closed and was instantly healed.

Once the syringe was emptied, he threw it to the ground and it crunched next to his boot. He paused and took one deep breath to compose himself. "You can interfere all you want, Mr. Sullivan..." he said to himself. "But you can't prevent the inevitable. It may take time, but rest assured..." he trailed off into a loud burst of maniacal laughter. "You're precious boy is my _pawn_!"

XXX

Once Sully pulled up to the cabin, he saw Vergil and Cutter waiting for him there. They knew that Sully wasn't in his youngest of years and wouldn't be able to carry Nate inside without hurting himself. As soon as the jeep approached the two men ran to it.

Vergil let out a choked gasp when he laid eyes on his brother, whose eyes were now fully closed. "Holy shit." he cursed. "What the hell happened to him, Sully!?" he yelled, immediately feeling guilt for snapping at him—he knew he wasn't responsible for the shape Nate was in right now, in fact, Sully was the reason he was still breathing.

"I'll tell you all about it later." Sully answered, exiting the car. As he went to lift Nate Cutter stopped him.

"It's okay, we got him, mate." Cutter assured him. He slowly lifted Nate's body forward and pulled him gently from the car. Vergil got on one side and Cutter on the other, arms around Nate's shoulders and leading him inside.

"Where's Elena?" Sully asked quickly.

"Chloe asked her to join her for a walk," Vergil answered. "doubt they'll be gone too long." Vergil answered Sully's next question before he could even ask it. "Pierce is already inside. He arrived right after Chloe and Elena left."

Sully ran to open the door for Vergil and Cutter. The two men drug Nate into the back room of a cabin. Inside was a small amount of medical equipment and a hospital bed. Pierce had made a room like this for them when the group told him they were going to be in Russia for a while and that Chloe was going to most likely go into labor before their trek was through.

Inside, Pierce was already sterile and ready to do any means of surgery he thought he would have to. When it came to injuries like this, especially one to the skull, time was not an accessory they had. One minute could mean the difference of life and death in most cases.

"Good Lord..." Pierce muttered to himself. He knew in that instant that Sully wasn't exaggerating when he told him Nate's status over the phone.

Cutter and Vergil placed Nate on the bed as softly as they could. Cutter brought his legs onto the bed as Vergil ever so gently lay his head down. Pierce came to the bed with an IV drip pulling beside him. He dabbed Nate's arm with alcohol and then inserted and taped down the needle.

Vergil looked to Pierce with pleading eyes. "Please...please save him."

Sully felt a wave of pity flood over him for Vergil. Nate was the closest thing to family that either one of them had and if Vergil was feeling a tenth of what he was, well, he wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy.

"Come on, kid." Sully said to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Pierce will patch him up. Let's let him get to work." he said, not sure if he was trying to soothe himself or Vergil.

Unable to speak another word, Vergil just nodded and did as he was told. Once the two were out of the room, Cutter walked up to the doctor.

Cutter shoved his hands in his pockets, and asked the question he wanted to ask last in the world for the answer he was so frightened to hear the answer to. "Okay, they're out of the room, so you can be honest with me—what's the chances of his survival?"

Pierce looked to him with eyes that said, 'Are you sure you want to know the answer to that question?'

"Please." Cutter responded with a sigh, by his pause he already knew the answer wasn't a good one. Even though Pierce was wearing a surgical mask and only his eyes were showing, he could read his face.

Pierce looked down at Nate and to his wound, then back to Cutter.

"I'd say about a 15% shot."


	8. Chapter 8 - Headstrong

**-8-**

**Headstrong**

Sully, Cutter and Vergil all paced anxiously outside of the medical room. So much was racing through their minds, for they knew that at any moment Chloe and Elena were going to come through that door. Not to mention that Pierce could come out with bad news about Nate. What were they going to do if he didn't make it? Nate had already thwarted death one by sheer force of luck, would he be able to do it twice?

Luck didn't typically work like that—at least for them anyway.

All their hearts dropped when they saw Pierce exit the room, still in all his doctor garb, his latex gloves almost completely dyed red at this point. He had looked like this was the hardest operation he had ever done in all his years of medicine. This look did nothing to soothe the others.

The three men didn't say a word, as if they couldn't find the right ones to use. They just eagerly awaited the doctor to break this awful silence.

"I need someone who has O type blood right away." he said quickly, looking to each of them for confirmation.

Without hesitation, Vergil stepped forward. "I do."

Pierce nodded and turned immediately back to the medical doors. "Come with me." he instructed.

Vergil did as he was told and followed Dr. Evans. He felt relieved that he could contribute to Nate's recovery in any way he could. Back when he worked for Adelle he had test after test done on him to make sure he made the cut to work for the scary terrorist woman. Every medical test known to man and knowing his blood type was among them.

Once he and the doctor were back in the operating room, Pierce slid a chair over next to Drake for Vergil to sit in. As Vergil sat, he felt his stomach flip a little when he saw Pierce come his way with a needle. He'd never cared for needles. Not at all. But he would do whatever it took to save his brother. Grimacing as the needle went inside his arm, he held his breath. Once the needle was in he didn't seem to feel it anymore, much to his relief.

"How's he doing?" Vergil reluctantly asked, trying to not look over to Nate for fear that just his glance would hinder him in some way.

Pierce cleared his throat before he answered. "Let's just say we're all very lucky that you and your brother there share the same blood type, because if you didn't, I can't say that he would have made it. He lost quite a bit of blood and when it's lost in the skull, any number of things could go wrong. But I know Nate and he's a fighter to say the least. All the same a prayer or two couldn't hurt."

Vergil exhaled. "Believe me, I've been doing a lot of that out there." After a few more moment, Pierce walked over to him and pulled out the needle, Vergil wincing as he did so.

"Sit here for a few minutes." Pierce warned him. "We don't need you passing out."

Vergil nodded. The next few lightheaded seconds confirmed Pierce's warning. Everything around him was bright and sound seemed to distort for a while. But he shook it off, he knew what he was going though was nothing compared to Nate.

Across the room, Pierce was getting the supplies he needed to transfer Vergil's blood. "I'm sorry, I know I took a lot of blood and quickly at that, but time is of the essence."

Vergil shook his head even though Pierce's back was to him. "It's alright. I know. I just want him to get better." He frowned, finally looking to his brother sadly.

"I think he's out of the worst of it now. As far as scars go it was close to the other one so it shouldn't be that noticeable." Pierce informed him. "Your friends should be glad to hear that."

Vergil let out a slight gasp and stood up. He staggered over to Pierce, falling into a table and knocking it's contents on the floor with a loud clang. Pierce quickly turned around and grabbed him.

"I told you to stay sitting down!" he scolded him. He guided Vergil back to the chair and he fought to catch his breath, he felt as if he was going to throw up.

"Please-" Vergil pleaded breathlessly. "You can't tell any of them about Nate's other scar."

Pierce's eyes narrowed and his brow raised. "They don't already know?" he asked in confusion.

Vergil shook his head and coughed a couple times. "No..." he replied, his breath finally slowing. "And neither does he." he said, aiming his head at Nate.

Pierce looked at Vergil in complete shock. How could someone not of known of something like that, especially the person themselves. More over, how did Vergil know about it and not Nate himself? It was clear that Vergil was hiding something about Nate's previous injury, but it wasn't his place to ask what it was. Although it was hard not to, what with the curiosity gnawing at him now.

"I don't know what's going on here, but I assume you have good reason for keeping a secret of this caliber, but I have to warn you that secrets like this...they love coming to light. Just make sure it comes out at the right time." Pierce warned him.

Vergil took his words in and nodded his head slightly. He knew that the doctor was right, given everything that had happened, he was surprised that this secret hadn't come out sooner, but now wasn't the time to get into all of that. It would have to wait until later.

Pierce could tell that this was a secret Vergil had kept hidden for a while now, and that it's coming up made him very uneasy. He placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Go relax on the couch in the den, I still have some work to do on him. I'll come and get you once it's finished."

With that, he helped Vergil get to his feet and carefully guided him to the door. Before he exited, Vergil turned to Pierce. "There's good reason for keeping this quiet. I swear to you." he assured the doctor.

Pierce nodded. "I figured as much." he answered. "Now go take it easy—I mean it this time." he said firmly.

"Thank you." Vergil replied.

Once Vergil was out of the room, Pierce walked over to the x-rays he took of Nate's head when he was first brought in. There was luckily no permanent damage to his skull, save for a small fracture near the back of his head. This was also where the other scar was he saw earlier. Pierce studied the picture as closely as he could, trying to see what had caused Nate to have a scar there. When he came up with nothing, he just sighed and glanced over at his patient. One thought rang through his head.

_What the hell had happened to you, kid?_

XXX

Once Vergil was outside, he let the others know that Pierce thought that Nate was going to make it after all, much to their surprise. All of their hearts had been beating out of their chests waiting for an answer such as this. Cutter and Sully noticed Vergil's pale complexion as soon as he made it out of the room. He assured them that it was just lightheadedness and nausea from the about of blood taken out of him at such a rapid pace. But truth be told, a lot of it was him worrying about Nate and his secret coming to light. Something like that had to stay in the dark, as long as it could.

Vergil lay his head back against the back of the couch, trying to push his queasiness down. The next thing he felt was Sully tapping his leg with something. When he opened his eyes he saw Sully handing him a chocolate bar.

"Eat this, kid. It'll get your blood sugar back to normal." Sully said, sounding like a father to him all of a sudden.

Vergil grabbed the chocolate and began eating it. Although the thought of food made him even more sick, he knew this was the quickest way for him to feel back to normal.

Cutter was looking out the window and cursed when he saw something. "Shit. Chloe and Elena are walking back."

Vergil began to stand but Sully held a hand up to stop him. "You stay there." he instructed him, the last thing Vergil needed was to be moving around this much. "Look," he went on, "she is Nate's wife. We have to let her know what's up sooner or later. And you heard Vergil, Nate's going to be alright."

Cutter sighed sadly and hung his head. "But who's going to..." he trailed off.

"I'll handle it." Sully interjected.

The three of them jumped to the sound of the front door opening. Chloe and Elena walked in, seeming to be in the midst of a cheerful conversation, but all of that was soon wiped away when they saw the glum faces of the men.

Chloe felt a lump in her throat. She knew this was it and it wasn't going to be pretty.

"Hey guys," Elena said, worried from the looks on their faces. "What's-" her words were cut off when she saw splatters of blood on the hard wood floor. She gave a quick glance around the room and saw everyone—everyone except for Nate. She already knew where he was and made a beeline for the medical room, crying out his name.

Sully cut her off and grabbed her. "You can't go back there, darlin'." he said in a soft voice.

Elena bucked, trying to get out of his grasp. "The hell I can't!" she cried. "Let go of me, Sully!"

"I'm sorry." Sully replied, his voiced saddened as his grip remained tight.

Elena finally gave up and Sully let her go. "What happened!? Is he okay?" she yelled to the whole room, not caring who gave her the answer.

"Yes." Vergil answered, remaining seated. "He's going to be okay."

Hearing Vergil's weak voice caught Chloe's attention. She walked over to him and sat down next to him, noticing how pale he was. "Are you okay?" she asked kindly.

Vergil took a deep breath before he explained everything. "Nate was attacked in the forest and got an injury to the head, he had lost a lot of blood and I had a type that matched and had to give him quite a bit of mine. But as of now, he and I are fine."

Elena's eyes were filled with rage and she turned to Chloe. "You knew, didn't you? That's why you got me out of the house."

Chloe just had sad eyes and hanged he head in shame. She didn't need to answer, for her silence spoke volumes.

Elena scoffed in anger. "How could y-" she began, only to be cut off by Sully.

"Now hold on a goddamn minute, it wasn't Chloe's fault at all. I'm the one who told her to get you out of the cabin." Sully told her, his voice rising. He felt like shit that it had come to all of this, that he had gotten Chloe in trouble, not to mention that he felt like he failed Elena too.

Elena didn't even speak. She just snapped her glance back to Sully and slapped him hard across the face. Sully's head barely moved from the strike, but it stung all the same. He brought his hand to his cheek and stretched his jaw out to loosen it. This wasn't the first time he had been slapped by a broad and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last. But this time, like all the others had something in common.

He deserved it.

Cutter ran up behind her and grabbed her arm to stop her from striking Sully again. "Come now, girlie, you have got to calm the hell down." he said in a firm voice. He understood that she was upset, but hitting her friends wasn't the way to handle it.

Elena twisted away from Cutter's grip and looked to all of them. "My husband is in there hurt and you guys couldn't even think enough of me to tell me?" she called out, her voice catching. The others all looked down in shame. She had a point. Soon, her sadness gave way once more into fury when a thought struck her. "That thing did this to him didn't it?" she asked in a sharp tone.

Sully just nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah it was."

Elena just shook her head in anger and reached behind her jeans and pulled out the pistol she had there in case she needed it, and this, as far as she was concerned, was a time when she _really_ needed it.

Pistol in tow, she made her way for the door, only to be once again stopped by Cutter and Sully. "Move!" she screamed. "I'm going to kill that sonofabitch!" she tried pushing past them, but to no avail.

"Elena, stop!" Cutter yelled at her. "You're upset, you're not thinking straight!"

"No!" she screamed back. "I'm going to go kill that thing so it can't hurt my husband anymore!"

Sully took his hands and gently cupped her face. "Listen to me, Elena." he said in a loving voice. "I know you want that thing dead, hell, we all do, but right now Nate needs you to be here. Be here when he wakes up. If you go out there and get hurt, that would kill him...not to mention all of us." he told her.

Elena didn't know if it was the situation, or the sincerity in Sully's voice but she just broke down crying, collapsing into Sully's arms, dropping her gun to the floor. Sully stroked her hair and tried to comfort her as best he could.

"I know, honey." he said softly.

After a moment and a few sniffles, Elena spoke again. "Can I please see him?" she asked, her voice more pleading than he had ever heard it.

"Yes, you can." A voice said from the other side of the room. It was Pierce, opening the door to the medical room. And without missing a beat, Elena darted to the door to see her husband.


End file.
